Humboldt State presents Social Justice Summit

The MultiCultural Center presented their 24th annual Social Justice Summit at Humboldt State on Saturday.

Deema Hindawi is an HSU student and a co-event coordinator of the summit.

“The theme for the summit this year is ‘Who Am I? [Back to Our Roots],’” Hindawi said. “We want people to look beyond their skin color and look into their roots. That is the purpose of this event.”

HSU student Lizzie Philips is also a co-event coordinator of the summit.

“We want to give students here at HSU a platform to hear their voice,” Philips said. “There are those who feel like their voices are not heard, but we want to change that with Social Justice Summit.”

Various workshops hosted by the MultiCultural Center were open to anyone. Topics ranged from social identities, sexual orientation and environmental justice.

Alixa Garcia and Namia Penniman are multimedia hip-hop artists from the group Climbing PoeTree. They came all the way from Brooklyn, New York to share their thoughts on environmental justice.

“Since we were kids we’ve been advocating for environmental justice,” Garcia said. “We came to Humboldt to highlight environmental issues and create awareness that there are groups that are fighting for the environment.”

One of the projects that Garcia and Penniman shared with those who attended the workshop was their S.T.I.T.C.H.E.D. workshop, a mural made of fabric where strangers wrote uplifting and positive messages that others can read.

“In a way, we [Garcia and Penniman] want to show how art can empower social and environmental activism,” Garcia said. “Because we’re all living [on] planet earth, right? We only have one shot at fixing it. If we don’t, where can we go? Mars?”

For those who missed the chance to meet Garcia and Penniman, they will deliver a keynote performance in the Kate Buchanan Room at 7 p.m. tonight.